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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28567845">Can I have one last kiss?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiffingbooks/pseuds/whiffingbooks'>whiffingbooks</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>These prompts keep pulling me in [20]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst and Feels, F/M, Tumblr Prompt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 03:49:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>829</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28567845</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiffingbooks/pseuds/whiffingbooks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt - Can I have one last kiss?</p><p>Harry meets Ginny before viewing Snape's memory.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>These prompts keep pulling me in [20]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859185</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Can I have one last kiss?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The battle was at a standstill when Harry reached the Great Hall buzzing with the people helping the wounded. He was discombobulated, feeling far removed from the situation in front of him. The cries of the wounded, the anguish of the living and the unnatural stillness of the dead didn’t faze him. Ron and Hermione seemed far away, their sniffles a white noise as he took in the scene in front of him.</p><p>
  <em>You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. …</em>
</p><p>He stopped aware of his friends halting in their tracks along with him.</p><p>He couldn’t. He couldn’t face all of them. He had let them fight for him and inadvertently, die for him. It should be him lying at their feet, dead and rotting. Not anyone else. Especially not Fred…</p><p>“I need some time…” he whispered. He could see George kneeling beside Fred’s broken body. Part of him was afraid to face him, afraid that George would look at him with the poison and hatred his own mind was conjuring against himself.</p><p>He wasn’t brave enough to face that.</p><p>“Take your time,” Ron gasped. Hermione opened her mouth to argue, but she stopped at the sight of Ron’s face. Instead, she nodded.</p><p>Both of them left Harry to join the other Weasleys in mourning. He spotted Fleur look up at him, her face a portrait of destruction.</p><p><em>Where’s Ginny?</em> His mind prodded, jolting him out of the panic about to consume him.</p><p>He searched through the mops of red hair, hoping to spot the long tresses of his ex-girlfriend, but he didn’t see her. As he turned around, about to start a frantic search, he collided with someone who landed on his chest with an all too familiar ‘oof’.</p><p>“You. You’re all right.” Ginny stared at him, her bright brown eyes fixing him in his place. “I thought…” she trailed off.</p><p>Hesitantly, Harry reached out with his hand. He cupped her face gently, a feather-light touch in complete contrast with the ruthless battle that happened a few minutes ago. Her eyes closed in bliss. He forgot about his bony hand and Ginny’s bruised face; for a while, it was just the two of them in their small corner at the lake, far away from the death and destruction.</p><p>“I’m sorry.” His first proper words to her after a year. He wished he could tell her how much he missed her, how he ached to hold her in those days of starvation and mindless searching.</p><p>But he was out of time and everything he touched seemed to die.</p><p>“It wasn’t your fault. It - It isn’t.” Her voice broke, but she didn’t take her eyes off him, even when they filled up with tears that spilt.</p><p>He nearly smiled. Devastatingly beautiful, she always had been.</p><p>“I need to go. I need to do something.”</p><p>His words woke up something in her. She tightened her grip on his shirt.</p><p>“You’re not…doing anything noble, are you?” She asked fearfully, but there was a note of resignation.</p><p>Harry knew right then and there she would let him go. She would cry, and hurt, and try to convince him, but in the end, she would let him go if he asked.</p><p>And that was the reason why he couldn’t tell her. He couldn’t keep on hurting her like this. He cared for her far too much to be her worst mistake.</p><p>In another life, they might have… In another life, he would have been selfish. Could have been.</p><p>In this one, he could only give her a part of his heart before leaving.</p><p>“Can I have one last kiss?” He tried to smile as he asked. He expected her to punch him for daring to ask that when her dead brother was lying a few feet away.</p><p>Instead, Ginny gave him the blazing look he had come to love. She tiptoed and after a year of longing and dreaming, their lips touched. He kissed her with all of the emotions he had. Images from the short encounter in her room rose and he deepened the kiss. His fingers dug in her neck, but neither of them noticed. Ginny clutched at him in desperation and he knew that it was the last kiss he would share with her.</p><p>He hoped she wouldn’t mourn him after he was gone. Nothing mattered more to him than her happiness.</p><p>At last, they pulled back. He stared at her, committing her features to his memory. She let him gawk at her without complaint and he understood that she was doing the same.</p><p>With a deep breath, he let her go. Giving her a final look (resisting the urge to touch the freckle near her lips that always taunting him), he turned around and started walking towards Dumbledore’s office.</p><p>He needed to get away before promising her he’d return. Lying to her. He needed to make sure no one else died for him.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Find me on <a href="https://whiffingbooks.tumblr.com/">whiffingbooks</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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